Thursday, August 07, 2014

What We're Reading: Fantasy about Sci Fi

Morwenna Phelps has had an interesting--and challenging--childhood. She and her twin sister, Morganna, grew up in Wales searching for,
and playing with, the fairies who live in the local industrial ruins. Their mother, Liz,
is a witch. She’s also mad. When Liz attempts to take control of the fairies,
the twins attempt to stop her. Morganna is killed, and Morwenna is gravely
injured. She is then sent to live with the father who abandoned them as babies, who
promptly packs her off to a girls’ boarding school in western England. There’s
no magic in England (or so little as to be not worth mentioning).
The only joy left in Mor’s life is found in the science fiction and fantasy
books that she consumes at an incredible rate.

In Among Others, author Jo Walton allows readers to peer
over the shoulder of Morwenna Phelps from September, 1979 through February,
1980. The novel is told through Mor’s almost daily journal entries. Mor’s voice
is clear and is full of both the conviction and doubt held by most 15-year-olds as they struggle to make sense of the world around them. The
plot progresses at a leisurely pace (as life often does), with countless small
and seemingly insignificant occurrences, some of which build in resonance and
significance.

The magic in Among
Others is both fascinating and frustrating. Unlike the magic encountered in most
books/movies/television shows, the magic in Among Others is indirect,
uncertain. It may provide the results you want, but not in the way you were
expecting. And you may never really know if it was magic that brought something
about. Like the idea that fairies would move into human ruins as they are
reclaimed by nature, it is a wonderful premise.

One of the joys of Among Others is Walton’s exploration and
review of what is now viewed as classic science fiction and fantasy novels. Like
Jim C. Hines in the "Magic Ex Libris" series (Libriomancer and Codes Born), Walton
lets her “geek flag fly” naming authors and titles that range from the well known
to the somewhat obscure. Unlike Hines, whose stories have required him to
create titles using dramatic license, all of the books Walton lists are real. Well-read
SF/F readers will find her commentary interesting and/or frustrating. (As when
Mor decides that she will not read Lord Foul's Bane by Stephen
Donaldson because it has “the temerity to compare itself. . . to 'Tolkien at
his best.'" She goes on to say that the source of the quote, The Washington Post,
“will always damn a book for me from now on. How dare they?”). Those who are
not as well read could use the titles listed in the story as an excellent introduction to their own pursuit of sci fi and fantasy.
While the story told is both charming and insightful, Among Others is foremost a love
letter to the authors and SF/F fandom of the late '70s and early '80s.

Among Others is a quirky, gentle novel. Almost everyone who values the company of books and derives pleasure from reading will find a bit (or
possibly more) of themselves reflected in Mor and her journey.

Among Otherswon the
2012 Nebula Award for Best Novel, the Hugo Award for Best Novel, and the British
Fantasy Award. It was a nominee for the World Fantasy Award for Best Novel.